A student writing a paper on evolution opened her essay with
"Sex has puzzled biologists ever since it was discovered
by Darwin and Mendel." Her professor deemed that "an
unpleasant image."

Another student in intellectual history argued that Spanish
military dictator Francisco Franco "was supported by
right-wing panties."

A student in media studies may have mixed up a metaphor when
they described a controversial Holocaust documentary
as "a hotly contested potato."

THE writes that a history student in New Zealand "confused
the story of Pavlik Morozov, the Soviet youth murdered by his
family after informing on his parents, with a more heartwarming
tale" when he claimed that Morozov was "a Russian
explorer who discovered the true meaning of Christmas."

A professor of microbiology and molecular biology might
have to explain the finality of death to his students, as two
wrote that "Nigella seeds can cure all disease
except death" and "Ebola could lead to
death, in some cases fatal."